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MoveOn Threatens Target With National Boycott For Donation To Anti-LGBT Candidate

08/03/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
Could there be more problems on the horizon for Target? MoveOn.org is now threatening a national boycott of the retail chain if the company does not stop spending money in the Minnesota Governor’s race. This would be in addition to all the people who have already threatened to or have stopped spending money at Target over their support of a PAC which is supporting anti-LGBT Minnesota candidate Tom Emmer.

MoveOn has already sent out a petition to its five million members. The petition is designed to alert Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel that his support of Emmer could hit the company in the cash register. The petition already has 200,000 signatures, and it is very popular in Minnesota.

Target becomes the first high profile case whereby the megacorporations are finding that donations to politicians may be dicey. The ruling known as Citizens United opened the door to this kind of spending, but it may have backfired as people walk away from Target.

According to the petition:

Target has spent over $150,000 in the Minnesota Governor’s race backing state Rep. Tom Emmer, a far-right Republican who supports Arizona’s draconian immigration law, wants to abolish the minimum wage and even gave money to a fringe group that condoned the execution of gay people.

Target must think customers won’t care. They’re wrong: We do care, and we need to let them know that we want Target–and all corporations–out of our elections.

Will you send a message to Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel telling him that you’re not going to shop at Target unless they stop trying to buy elections?

So far, the protests and boycott have been confined to Minnesota, but it is undoubtably hurting Target in that state. If this goes national, it could become a major problem for the company. MoveOn is even targeting the company on Facebook and with online ad campaigns.

The move by MoveOn could have a ripple effect across the nation, and the LGBT protests could as well. They may force companies to abandon trying to fund political campaigns because of the potential risks. It could also make companies feel that upsetting a few customers is a small price to pay for pocket politicians.

Ilyse Hoge, MoveOn Spokeswoman, stated “Since the Supreme Court decision allowing unlimited corporate spending in elections, ordinary Americans have been voicing outrage that this tips the scales of democracy even more towards those with power and money. Target chose to test the waters and the people have spoken: people all over the country will vote with their dollars if Target and other corporations continue to meddle in our elections.”

Politicians may also find it harder to get elected with obvious corporate backing since many people may be unwilling to vote for a person who is, in effect, beholden to the corporations already. While this is already the case, these kinds of stories force this information into the public where people can react to it.

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